“What? It’s great! I get to help people, not just Casey. The other tenants in her building are safe too. And all those foster kids are going to get education and medical care. What’s wrong with that? I feel like I’m one of the good guys!”
“Okay, yeah, it’s great, but Mick. You fucking bought her home and bought her job. You own her. And she doesn’t even know it. Don’t you see how…fucked up that is?”
“Well shit. No, it’s not like that. I just wanted to help. I just wanted her to have a safe place to sleep and to be able to do her work the way she wanted to. With no limits just because of money.”
“I know you had good motives, but you just don’t do that. You don’t step into people’s lives and go ‘snip snip’ and fix everything!”
“Why the hell not? Is it the money? Because really, the building cost peanuts, and my investments earn ten mil every ten days. It sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t.”
“To you, it isn’t. What about to her?”
I sighed. I knew he was right. In fact I’d thought of every single thing he’d said before he ever said it. But I wanted to give Casey the world. There was just something about that girl.
“Mick, you gotta tell her,” he was saying. “You have to do it soon. The longer this goes on, the worse it gets.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“You’re seeing her tonight, right? Come clean, Mick. Just do it.”
And I knew he was right.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Casey
I had put off seeing my mom long enough. I really hated hiding from her that I was dating someone, but what was I going to say? Still, she kept calling and calling, so I decided to go over there for a quick visit before meeting Mick for drinks. I was so excited for that that I was sure my impatience would show.
But Mom was pretty oblivious, and for once I was grateful. When I got there, she led me in to the dining room and offered me tea, as usual. We sat at the long shiny table and sipped from our fragile cups. Mom had a lot to tell me about everything that had happened in her social circle while I was gone. She was always bubbly and cheerful, so I tried not to hold it against her that she had so little curiosity about Africa, my new job, or much else in my life.
Some of her friends had gotten divorced while I was gone, and Mom clucked and tsked over it. I always wondered how her marriage to my stepdad worked. They seemed perfect for each other in a way, two people who always kept everything on the surface. No deep feelings, nothing negative. I wondered what Mom would think if she knew the big secret I was carrying. Would she approve, saying it was best to keep everything sunny and keep everyone happy? Or would she say that secrets themselves were destructive?
When she started talking about Mick, I suddenly brought my attention back to what she was saying.
“You should see your brother now, Kathy.” (Mom still called me by the name she gave me, of course.) “He sure is reaping the rewards of his success. He has the penthouse of the Ellington Building, he drives a Lamborghini....”
“What?” I said. “How can he afford that?”
“He can afford anything he wants, after winning the suit against the tobacco company. He got billions out of that one case.”
“Tobacco company?”
“Yes! He’s a lawyer.”
“I know he’s a lawyer! Environmental law.”
“No, personal injury. Since that one big win, he can pick and choose any case he wants.”
I was speechless while Mom rattled on about tobacco companies and medical malpractice. Did Tony have another son I didn’t know about? That would be crazy.
“Mick? You’re talking about Tony’s son Mick?” I finally said.
“Yes, who else?” She really looked at me then. “Kathy, are you okay? You look pale as a ghost.”
“I just thought.... I remember Mick saying he was going into environmental law, years ago, when he was in law school.”
“Not that I ever heard of. He went for the big money. He’s an honest-to-god billionaire now. After the tobacco verdict, he opened his own firm.”
I couldn’t process this. but the word ‘billionaire’ was echoing in my head. It made no sense. I heard my stepfather talking in the hallway, and I was grateful for the interruption, so I would have a minute to think.
“So you think that’s a good investment?” Tony was saying outside the dining room door.
“Sure is. It’s been performing for me.” That was Mick’s voice! Was he here? I actually looked under the table and thought about crawling down there for a second. This was a disaster.
Mick and my stepfather walked in. Tony came over and kissed my mom on the cheek she raised for him.
Mick noticed me. Pleasure and surprise battled for control of his face. “Casey!” he said. “What are you doing here?” He started towards me, and I prayed for the floor to open up and drop me into the basement.
“Casey?” Mom said. “Don’t you recognize your sister Kathy? She’s finally back from Africa.”
You know the saying about the pin dropping? Well, you could have heard it. I have listened to gunshots outside my window with less fear than I had in that moment.
Mick’s face changed from pleased to confused, and then I can’t even describe his expression. “Oh my god,” he said. “Oh my god. It’s you. Of course it’s you. Oh my god, how did I not see it?”
“Not see what?” Tony said. “Doesn’t she look great? Lost that baby fat, got her hair done, she looks like America’s Top Model, doesn’t she?”
Mick’s lips were folded in and pressed together so tightly that they lost all color. What in the world could I say?
All at once he was in motion. “Dad, I need to go. I’m sorry I have to cut our visit short.” He shook my stepdad’s hand and turned to my mom. “Linda, nice to see you.” And then he looked at me. “Kathy” was all he said, but the word dripped with venom.
“Mick, wait!” I said. “Mom, I have to go too,” I called as I ran out the doorway. The front door was just banging shut behind Mick and I ran to catch up.
“Mick!”
He turned around fast. “What? What could you possibly have to say? You deceived me; I found out; goodbye.” He turned away and walked toward a red low-slung sports car that I hadn’t noticed before.
“What about you?” I shouted after him? “Huh? Mr. Bleeding-Heart Environmentalist?”
He turned back to me, but didn’t say anything.
“Yeah, Mom told me. You’re an actual billionaire, from what she says. A personal injury lawyer--ambulance chasers, I believe they’re called.”
“That’s outta line!” he shouted.
“Is it? How about liar? That sounds pretty accurate to me. You made up some pretty detailed stories, all that stuff about fracking and toxic runoff and people dumping industrial waste in the river in the middle of the night!”
“That actually happens!”
“But not to your clients! You made it all up, for god knows what reason!”
He was quiet for a minute. He looked out into the street and then back at me. “Somehow, changing what kind of lawyer I am just doesn’t compare with what you did. Telling me you weren’t my sister--”
“No! I didn’t tell you anything. You just didn’t see it. If I’d ever mattered to you--”
“A lie by omission is still a lie!” He looked so disgusted. “It changes everything, it’s just so--”
“We’re not blood relatives, Mick. It’s not like it really matters.”
“Of course it matters! If it didn’t matter, you’d have no reason to hide it, would you?”
He had me there. I’d known from the beginning that he wouldn’t consider dating me if he’d known. I took a deep breath. “I was going to tell you. I was going to tell you tonight, in fact.”
“Well, that’s just perfect. Because I was going to tell you tonight, too.”
Our eyes met, and for a few seconds, we shared the irony. For just a moment, I thought that everything was going
to be okay, that we’d find a way to work it out. But no.
He sighed, and in an utterly toneless voice, he said, “I guess we’re just breaking up a few hours early then, Casey. Kathy.” He looked out into the street, and then squeezed his eyes closed hard. He said, “I was really....”
“What?”
“Nothing. Doesn’t matter now.”
“I was really, too,” I whispered, but he had turned away.
CHAPTER NINE
Casey
I was putting the last of my books into a cardboard box when I heard a knock at the door.
Mick stood there in my hallway. He had dark circles under his eyes, and hadn’t shaved for a few days. His white shirt with the monogrammed cuffs was wrinkled all over, as if he’d slept in it.
“Why did you send the ten mil back? I got the wire transfer notice this morning.”
“I can’t take your money, Mick.”
“Can I come in?”
“There’s no reason for you to come in.”
“You want to have this conversation in the hall?”
I sighed. “Fine. Come in.” I was wearing an old pair of thrift-store mens pajamas, and I wasn’t exactly ready to play the hostess.
He took one step inside the apartment, looked around, and stopped short. “What’s all this? You’re moving out?”
“I’m going back to Africa. I can’t....” I shook my head. He didn’t need to know the details. “I’ll do better once I’m back there.”
“Casey, I didn’t mean.... Kathy? What should I even call you?”
“Casey is fine.”
“I didn’t mean to do anything wrong, giving your non-profit that money.”
“I know. But I can’t accept it. And I can’t live here anymore.”
“What? Why?”
“I know you bought my building; I talked to Shannon. So now you own my house. And my work, you pretty much own that. You bought and paid for me.” I had to stop talking because my voice was starting to sound like I was going to cry. Again. I’d been crying for the last three days, off and on.
“That’s not what I wanted.” He was whispering, his face looked strained.
“I know. Your intentions were good, I’m sure. But do you see the effect it has? I owe you. I would always feel like I had to keep you happy so you wouldn’t take it back.”
“But I wouldn’t! I didn’t give the money to YOU, I gave it to the non-profit, to the kids and the families. I liked doing it. It made me feel like a better person.”
“I don’t think you’re a bad person, Mick. It’s just…money changes everything.”
He exhaled sharply and said, “You don’t get how small that amount of money is to me.”
“Ten million dollars?”
“Okay. When I won that big verdict, the first one, I invested all that money. I was already doing well, I’m a young single guy, what did I need with it all? I wanted to keep working, I knew that.”
“I’m not sure what this has to do with anything.”
“Just let me explain, it’s the least I owe you.” He took a long breath. “So there all this money is, sitting there. It grows every day.”
“Look, I get that you’re rich, okay? You’re filthy rich, I get it!
“No, you don’t! No one gets this. Casey, with everything I have invested, the money that is just sitting there--it makes over a million dollars a day.”
I just stood there with my mouth hanging open.
“Yes,” he continued. “Not what I make as a lawyer, Just investments. A million dollars. Every day.”
“Oh.” It was all I could say.
“Yeah. So when I gave ten mil to your non-profit? That was ten days of extra money. Not money I earned. Not money I need to keep the lights on at my firm. Just...money that comes in no matter what I do. I don’t spend it. It just...sits there.”
I still didn’t say anything. What do you say when you hear this kind of stuff?
Mick had been talking very slowly, deliberately, but now he sped up. “Casey when I got the idea to give to Foster Family Services, I was so excited. Finally! I can do something good! I mean my tax guy donates to charities to ease the tax hit, and that’s great, but this! Was something I actually knew about! I want those kids to have what they need. And I want you to be the one to give it to them.”
“Well. I’m about to resign. You can decide if you want to donate to Foster Family Services in my absence. So you see, this really has nothing to do with me any more.”
“Casey, really? You’re just going to turn your back on those kids?”
“That’s not fair!”
“Oh yeah? You don’t seem to get that that ten mil will mean the nonprofit never has to go looking for grants again. You can use two million for present needs, invest the rest, and get a yearly income of six hundred grand! Did you know that?”
I was silent. No, of course I hadn’t even thought of that. I didn’t realize that returning the money would hit the non-profit so hard. I sighed.
“Let me send it back to you,” he said, and without warning he grabbed both of my hands. “I’ll help you invest it. Or get someone to do it for you if you don’t want my help.”
As soon as he touched me, my heart sped up, and I felt a wave of heat rush through my body. I couldn’t think. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you’ll let me help foster kids.”
I nodded, helpless to say no to him.
He suddenly exhaled a huge breath, but then dropped my hands. He looked exhausted, suddenly. “Good,” he said. “That’s...it’s the right thing to do. Do you...?” He shook his head. “Ah, shit. I guess I should go.”
I watched him walk over to the door. Something in my chest grew bigger and bigger and exploded all at once, and I said, “Wait!”
He turned around so fast I couldn’t believe it. “What, Casey?” he said, his voice full of urgency.
“Why did you do it? Why did you lie to me?”
He went to the French doors and looked out for a minute before turning to me. “First of all, I didn’t know it was you. At first you were just some girl that Jim’s wife knew, a total stranger.”
“Yes, but why say you were an environmental lawyer when you weren’t?”
“It wasn’t the environmental part.” He sighed. “Can I sit down?”
I nodded, and perched on the edge of the futon myself.
“I’d been going on blind dates, using dating sites, all the stuff they say you’re supposed to do to meet someone. And all the girls I met were gold diggers. Maybe having a known billionaire sitting across from you turns perfectly nice women into gold diggers, I don’t know. I could tell that they were a lot more interested in my money than they were in me. I just wanted to meet someone nice, someone who didn’t look at me and see dollar signs. So I told Jim to say I was a different kind of lawyer, a kind that hardly ever gets rich.”
I nodded again. It made sense. “But why did you keep telling me all those stories?”
He shook his head. “It just.... It worked too well. I met a wonderful girl who didn’t care about money, and who thought environmentalists were going to save the world. Every time I told you something about it, you’d look at me like I was some kind of hero. I got hooked on it.”
I just nodded.
“Plus, once I got to know you, I knew that you wouldn’t want to be part of my life. I don’t know if you realize this, but you kind of hate rich people. I figured once you knew, you’d break up with me.”
“It still seems like lying.”
“It was lying. No question about it. And Casey, I apologize. I didn’t mean it to go so far, I just didn’t know how to stop.” He stopped talking for a minute and looked at me. “Casey…of all the things to accuse me of…. You’re not exactly Honest Abe here either.”
“I know.”
“Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“What, tell you I was your stepsister?”
/>
“Of course. I don’t even know why you’d want to set it up with Jim’s wife in the first place.”
“What?”
“Why would you want to trick me? Why would you want your friend to set you up with me?”
“I still don’t get it. Do you think I knew it was going to be you sitting in that restaurant?”
“You didn’t plan the whole thing out?”
“NO! Shannon just said her husband’s friend was looking to meet somebody, did I want to go out. Wait, you thought I cooked this whole thing up, knowing ahead of time I’d be dating my stepbrother, and he wouldn’t even know who I was?”
He looked at me for a long moment. “I guess that means you didn’t. Right?”
“Of course right! My god, Mick!”
“So, what happened?”
“I went on a blind date. I saw you sitting there, and thought you would recognize me and we would chat about old times and that would be that. I never dreamed you wouldn’t know it was me.”
“But I obviously didn’t, like right from the first minute. And you said nothing.”
“I kept thinking, ‘Any minute now, he’ll recognize me.’”
“But when I didn’t, you just kept up the pretense. Why?”
I didn’t know what to say. We were broken up, he had already decided that on the sidewalk in front of Mom’s house. Should I admit to thinking of him for all those years? I looked at him. Every line of his face was dear to me. The dark circles under his eyes, the beard stubble, the wildly disheveled hair—they all just made him look better. Less perfect. More real. I knew I’d lost him. What more did I have to lose? I might as well come clean, after all these years.
“Because I wanted to believe, for just one night, that the dream I had when I was in high school had come true.”
His face moved. “That’s.... I need to hear more about that.”
“Well. That’s all. You were my ideal when I was a girl. No man since then has ever come close. I mean, I’ve dated, of course, had some half-assed relationships. But no one was ever as good as the image of you that I had in my heart.”
“Really?” he whispered.
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